Voodoo Murders of Brainerd
To my fans eagerly awaiting the promised release of the novel VOODOO MURDERS OF BRAINERD, I have some disappointing news. I have put the project on “ice.” Why? Well, a couple of reasons. One is what I am calling a TONAL SHIFT in my work, away from literary-oriented novels and towards…well, we’ll get to that.
My two novels, CUTE EATS CUTE
and END OF MEN
were both conceived and executed under the premise that my goal was to “be” a novelist, to be known as a “novelist,” and in my dreams a “famous novelist.” Though I wouldn’t hang up on a reviewer for the New York Times, I am shifting to what I call on my website Creative Lab. This encompasses all the various creative activities I am involved in, including, but not limited to: “novels,” graphic novels, books of art, teaching art in prison, books combining art and writing, paintings (real paintings with paint on them), and various sculptural objects (like skulls made of tiny rocks). What have I left out? My hobbies and collections, for example my current obsession with hand-painted Ghanaian movie posters and my “homages” to them.
VOODOO MURDERS OF BRAINERD was originally conceived as a “scam plot” story, something along the lines of “The Music Man” meets “The Grifters” by way of “Angel Heart.”
The main character was partly inspired by Charles Arrowby from Iris Murdoch’s 1978 novel “The Sea, The Sea.” My character, James, is a rather unsuccessful antiquities dealer in St. Paul who retires to his family’s aging estate in Brainerd, MN. Kicked off by a Peace Corps stint in Haiti, James ended up collecting “voodoo” objects which he showed to a select clientele in the back room of his otherwise mainstream art and antiquities gallery. James’ younger assistant, Mara, is both a part-time lover and his Internet mentor. She wants to put his inventory online, creating a business he can run from quasi-rural Brainerd (Minnesota’s all season “playground”).
Another reason for moving “back” to Brainerd for James is that he will be near his estranged and druggy son, Isaac. Once James is established in the old mansion, he realizes or rather Mara realizes that Isaac is stealing objects from his collection and placing them on “occult” and magic sites which is a different niche than James main collection.
In the original plot, a scam artist named Kamala (survivor of Katrina now based in Houston) sees Isaac’s postings of a stolen Haitian “voudou slave flag.” (See below). She contacts him and claims the object has not only occult powers but comes with a curse on it. Kamala hires local “zombie street performers” from Minneapolis to play Haitian demons materializing around Brainerd.
Unfortunately one “scare incident” leads to a death, so the local law enforcement gets involved. Unbeknownst to Kamala, the research she has done on the cursed slave flag (revenge curse) is accurate but academic. The curse is real and soon “real” Haitian gods are materializing about town and causing mayhem.
Stay tuned for more. It sounds good. Maybe I should finish it.
